Full cooking gas cylinders available in black market

Kathmandu February 11- LPG bottling plants have been supplying full cylinders of cooking gas in the black market, capitalizing on the situation of inadequate supply of liquefied petroleum gas from India and weak market monitoring in the country.

Cylinders of various brands of LPG that are fully refilled are easily available in the black market though Nepal Oil Corporation has barred bottling plants from dispatching full cylinders in the market.

Along with the scarcity of the commodity, NOC had instructed bottling plants in October to dispatch only half-filled cylinders in the market so that more number of people could avail LPG.

But some consumers have a different story to tell. Sushan Lama of Koteshwor bought a full cylinder of cooking gas in the black market last week at a price of Rs 5,000, along with the cylinder. During normal times, a 14.2 kg cylinder of cooking gas costs around Rs 3,500 only.

According to the Gas Dealers Federation Nepal, bottling plants have not been dispatching refilled cylinders on a regular basis.

“Bottling plants are dispatching a very limited number of cylinders to the dealers only every two to three days,” said Chandra Bahadur Thapa, general secretary of GDFN, adding, “Sometimes they cite shortage of diesel to ferry refilled cylinders to the dealers, and at times they say it is due to problems created by the locals.”

Gas bottlers have been directly supplying full cylinders of LPG to big consumers, such as industries and star hotels, and dispatch a limited number of half-filled cylinders to dealers to be distributed to households.

“Around 11,000 tonnes of cooking gas was imported from India in January, but the shortage has still persisted like in the earlier months,” said Thapa.